Researchers who tried to figure out what killed the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig found that the organ contained an animal virus, but have yet to say if it played a role in human mortality.
A Maryland man, David Bennett Sr., 57, died in March two months after a groundbreaking experimental transplant. Doctors at the University of Maryland said Thursday they discovered an unwanted surprise: viral DNA in a pig’s heart. They saw no sign that this bug, called porcine cytomegalovirus, was causing active infection.
But the main concern of animal-to-human transmission is the risk that it could introduce new types of infection to humans.
Because some viruses are “latent,” meaning they hide without causing disease, “it can hitchhike,” Bartley Griffith, a surgeon who performed Bennett’s transplant, told The Associated Press.
However, more sophisticated tests are being done to “make sure we don’t miss these types of viruses,” added Dr. Mohammed Mohiudin, scientific director of the university’s xenograft program.
The animal virus was first reported by the MIT Technology Review, citing a scientific presentation by Griffith, presented to the American Transplant Society last month.
For decades, doctors have tried in vain to use animal organs to save lives. Bennett, who is dying and not allowed to undergo a human heart transplant, underwent recent surgery using a genetically engineered pig heart to reduce the risk of his immune system’s rapid rejection of such a foreign organ.
The Maryland team said the donor pig was healthy, underwent tests required by the Food and Drug Administration to diagnose infections, and was raised in a facility designed to prevent the spread of animal infections. Revivicor, the company that supplied the animal, declined to comment.
Griffith said his patient, when he was seriously ill, had somewhat recovered after the transplant when he woke up worse one morning, with symptoms similar to those of an infection. Doctors performed several tests to determine the cause and gave Bennett a variety of antibiotics, antiviral medications, and treatments to boost immunity. But the pig’s heart was swollen, filled with fluid, and eventually stopped working.
“What does the virus do, if nothing else, that can make his heart swell?” Griffith asked. “Honestly, we don’t know.”
The reaction was also not a typical bodily denial, he said, noting that the investigation was still ongoing.
Meanwhile, doctors from other medical centers around the country are conducting experiments on animal organs in human donor bodies and want to try to do official studies on living patients in as soon as possible. It is not known how the swine flu virus will affect these plans.
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.
Source: Huffpost
